When people arrive on your website or on your blog, you try to persuade, tempt and even ethically bribe them to give you their precious email address, so they join your list of prospective clients and you can send them newsletters and promotions.

A few short years ago, offering a subscription to a free newsletter was enough of a novelty that people happily signed up.  After a while, the number of email newsletters and promotions grew unmanageable and they started to unsubscribe to all but the best publications and virtually stopped signing up to new ones.

Then along came the ‘Free Report’!  The thought of getting something for nothing once again persuaded people to give their email address, and of course then they were also added to your newsletter subscription list.  That worked for a while.

The problem is that people are tired of having too much, often inferior, material to read.  Once again, they’ve stopped giving their email details.

As a result it now takes something rather special and different to tempt them.  For example:

• An Audio recording to listen to online or download as an MP3 File can be more convenient.
• Free CDs can be used to obtain full postal addresses, which people have traditionally been more reluctant to divulge.
• Multi-part E-courses, basically a series of emails sent at intervals over a period of time.
• Video Tutorials are very popular just now, especially as part of the launches of higher price products or services.  With some of them, you get to watch one video straight away but then have to give your details in order to access the second part – very crafty!

Whatever you choose as your free giveaway, make sure it contains excellent value material.  This is the first impression potential clients will get of what you do, so it needs to be a good one.  If they feel disappointed or cheated, they’ll leave your list and never become paying customers.

They may also spread the word about their experience, via Twitter or on their blogs. And then ‘Free’ could become much too expensive for your business.

Have you ever opened an email to find you’re on someone’s newsletter list – and you’re not sure how it happened?  I know it’s happened to me many times, especially after I’ve been out networking.  Giving out your business card is also giving ‘implied’ consent for the person to whom you give it, to contact you again.  If I’m absolutely honest, that’s how I started off building my list too!

These days, I do ask if people mind being sent my newsletter – it’s a bit more polite than sending it regardless!  Over the years, I’ve found several very effective ways to build my list of contacts – both online and offline:

Business Card – Article Writing – Public Speaking – Direct Mail – Website/Blog

The common denominator for each of these activities is to have something to tempt people to part with their name & email address.  Gone are the days when a regular newsletter was reason enough, your prospects are much more demanding now!

For example, on this blog you get the rather excellent ‘Ultimate Small Business Guide to Marketing via the Internet’.  This is delivered as a pdf file as soon as you enter & confirm your contact details.  Other ideas of give-aways could include an audio file, a series of tips delivered at regular intervals via email, a free consultation or sample.

If your give away is of poor quality, you will damage your prospects’ perception of your paid products or services.  Do make sure that what you give away is of good value, and not simply a poorly disguised sales pitch. 

It needs to be something you’d be proud to sell, and have a ‘Wow!’ factor when they get it.  Give it a monetary value to enhance the desirability and encourage people to sign up and stay on your list.